


The Folly Of Rule: Laufiel’s Story

by GothMoth



Series: May's Phantastical Callings [30]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ancient History, Forgotten Ones, Gen, Ghost King Danny Fenton, Mentions of War, Nationalism, Origin Myths, Origin Stories, Speciesism, Worldbuilding, forgotten history, history lesson, mentions of discrimination, story telling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24079426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: The past may be lost to time but we remember, if we can.Aka what about the High Sovereigns that came before Pariah?
Series: May's Phantastical Callings [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1405315
Comments: 4
Kudos: 68
Collections: A Phantom Rule





	The Folly Of Rule: Laufiel’s Story

**Author's Note:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 8: Lost

Danny picks up a not so small book and leans almost menacingly over the young child ghosts. “Now here-”, drumming his fingers on the book, “-is a story of darkness. Of power and claiming it. Of the cruel truths of bigotry. And of madness. It’s not a happy one by any means, but it is our history”, chuckling slightly, “and it is the mortals' history as well”. 

A blue-haired child butts in, “but how could it be both? We’re pretty damn separate”. 

Danny sighs, “we didn’t use to be. You see, back before all of us, even me, mortals and ghosts used to exist side by side. In some form of harmony really, even if it wasn’t exactly harmonic. And even today we are still tied and bound to each other”. 

Gesturing to some of the stained glass around, depicting battles and the royals of both old and new. “As you know, I am the fourth High Sovereign, but back in the times of the first, the one and only High Ghost Queen, things were very different. Our two kinds loved, laughed, traded, and even forged families together. Though of course there was still mortals who hated ghosts and ghosts who hated mortals. We were intertwined and we were all better for it, flourished for it”, sighing and patting the book, “but it wasn’t to last. Nothing good ever truly does. I can tell you that from experience. Suffering can last an eternity, but happiness is only fleeting”, shaking his head. 

“Anyway, do any of you know why you do not know the name of the High Queen? The first of the High Sovereigns?”. At everyone’s shaking heads he continues, “it is because of another simple truth, monsters are never forgotten and the good in the world is easy enough to forget. But it is also because the first High King, the second High Sovereign, wanted to erase any trace of her. Today the only I know of who knows her name outside of myself, is the first Ancients and the Observants. And her full story is one lost to time and only known by it”. The children all make shocked faces at him but don’t bother to ask for her name, knowing in a way that he won’t tell them. 

Patting the book again, “this story is about that second High Sovereign, his rise and fall. And the darkness that came after”, Danny gestures to one of the glass panes, showing an old wrinkled looking man with red skin and a sharp smile much too wide for his face, the ground littered with corpses and ectoplasm while the man grasps a glowing orb; a cape of flames flaring out behind him. “Laufiel. The Apathetic King. Not that he looks all that unenthused”, earning a few laughs, “where he really got his name was from his lack of concern for everything. Safety, happiness, the future, his subjects. All of it meant nothing to him. He was one of ideals and beliefs and opinions. With little regard for the reality of things or any others”, patting the book, “and that is where this story starts. With a future High Sovereign that cared for nothing but his own ideals of perfection”. 

Danny opens the book to a picture of a bloodied dead man, “like everything, our story begins with death, but in his life, Laufiel was seen as a son of the gods. As Ancient Blessed. And he was treated in kind. Receiving adoration from some and endless cruelty from others. It was this cruelty that ended him and it’s what went on to make him the ghost he was. Though he died young and bloodied, his form amongst the dead was more mature, aged and wrinkled, due to his wisdom and intellect”, wagging a finger at the group, “always be careful of the smart ones, they can destroy everything and make it look like child-play; while convincing you it’s your fault”. Sighing, “and that’s exactly what happened. He had something of an ego and was a nationalist through and through. When he died he saw it as only possible due to mortals ‘falling out of favour’ with the Ancients. That mortals were clearly lesser and unworthy of him. And eventually-”, flipping through pages depicting carnage, war, and weeping figures, “-that mortals were a taint, a stain, a corruption. Saw mortals and ghosts mixing as abhorrent. As diluting the perfect species and defiling the Ancients. As an insult on him as a supposed ‘Ancient Blessed”.

A horned child throws up both their hands and blurts out, “was he _actually_ blessed by the Ancients?”.

Danny laughs and shakes his head, “hardly. But as I said, he cared little about trivial things like ‘reality’ and ‘facts’. His belief was all that mattered”, tapping on a page that seemed to be the abstract of two beings fighting, “and that belief was reason enough to carve his way through the mortal world, destroying parts of the universe in his wake until the High Queen had had enough. Till the two powerful ghosts had waged war against each other and clawed at each other’s throats”.

“Laufiel _hated_ her, a mortal sympathiser. Someone he deemed weak and unworthy. Too kind. Too pretty. Too peaceful. He deemed her a lesser being on those bases alone. Someone trained by mortal hands and thoughts”, flipping to a shadowy drawing of one figure running another through with a massive iron cross or possibly sword, “and in the end, he was right. She wasn’t strong. She wasn’t skilled. She wasn’t fierce. She was liked. She was befriended. She was kind. But being well-liked and having allies can only go so far when they aren’t there to help you. She was defeated, ended, alone and abandoned. Any loyal allies nothing compared to Laufiel and destroyed themselves, in secret and systematically. The High Queen facing off against him far too late, having been kind by pushing off moving to destroy him in the foolish hope that he’d change and be better”, shaking his head, “that’s the thing with hope and kindness, you should only extend it as far as you can face the consequences of it being misplaced. That is why her hope was foolish, not because she hoped but because she hoped far too recklessly”. 

Flipping through image after image of fields littered with bodies and steaming ectoplasm, “and for her foolishness, he took her crown. Slaughtered any who followed her or believed as she did, mortal or ghost. And set in motion his desires. Absolute segregation. The separation of ghosts from the ‘lowly tainted filthy’ mortals. Planted seeds of hatred and mistrust on both sides with careful planning and ruthless abandon. Burned any literature, song, or depiction, showing the mingling of species as positive or of the previous High Queen. But the biggest achievement of his?”.

Danny waits for a beat and lets them stew in their anticipation before flipping to show the very same ball of light that Laufiel was depicted holding on the stained glass, “the HeartsBane, or Soul Tear as some call it. An artifact created and wielded by Laufiel alone. It’s creation and use is something else only truly known by time. But its use is one of the most important parts of the universe's history. For with it he tore a rift in the universe. In dimensional planes. Tore away all the ectoplasm from all the living matter, into two separate planes. Forever making the mortal Realm unable to support the ectoplasmic needs of ghosts and the ghost Realm unable to support the living needs of mortals. One world without so much as a drop of ectoplasm anywhere and another without living matter food or water. Absolute segregation. If not by choice then by survival”.

Flipping pages as the children look mildly horrified. One asking, “so this guy’s why we can’t stay with the mortals for more than a day or two?”. 

Danny nods with a sad hum, “it’s unfortunate but yes. And that wasn’t even enough for Laufiel”, shaking his head, “no, he didn’t want ghosts having to ‘degrade’ themselves by interacting with mortals or mortals being able to taint this new ghost world by coming here. So he hunted down each natural portal linking the world’s together, the last clinging on strands of connection, and obliterated them. Devoured them”, Danny smirks a little and shrugs exaggeratedly, “but of course no one can actually best nature. So as he would destroy them, more would form in their wake. And they would get trickier”.

A few of the children snicker. A red-skinned one smiling, “that’s why they move around so much and stay open for so short, isn’t it?”.

Danny nods and points to her, “precisely. Nature is very adaptable”, putting a hand to his chest, “I mean, look at me? A complete hybrid of ghost and mortal. The absolute combination of life and death”, laughing, “Laufiel would be _so disgusted_ ”, shrugging, “but alas he was ended long before my time even began”. 

Flipping a few pages to a pissed-off looking Viking-like human, “nature has its ways of righting things too and she’s a tricky one. And tricksters-”, smirking, “-are the most dangerous of all”. Making a few of the children roll their eyes, well aware of Phantom’s well-earned trickster title. While he continues, “and one of nature’s most common ways and truths is that people are so often the makers of their own demise”, tapping on the page, “enter Pariah Dark. When he was human”. 

Danny pauses to let all of them gape and lean forward, eager to get a glimpse of the living legend. Starting up again when they settle down, “now Pariah, he lived in the era of Laufiel’s rain of destruction on the portals. Near the end of it actually. In the time when ghosts, having been tainted by bigotry and Laufiel’s manipulations, abused and tormented mortals like they were nothing but cheap toys. And so we see the cycle repeating, the cycle of a mortal man viewing one species above the other. Of a man seeking to satisfy his own ideals. But Pariah was no Laufiel. Not by a long shot”, flipping the page to show the same angry man being torn to shreds by shrieking ghosts that looked far more misty and staticky than today’s ghosts, while also tearing some apart with his bare hands and teeth, “Pariah died at the hands of ghosts. But he destroyed over a hundred of them single-handedly that same day. Pariah was neither smart nor dumb, but was undoubtedly fierce and powerful. He stayed as such as a ghost. And even though he died, he _never_ forgot”.

Flipping through pictures of chained ghosts and torture rapidly, eliciting a few gags, “to him ghosts were wild beasts. Unruly creatures of hatred and violence. Things that needed to be contained and controlled. Emotionless and heartless-”. 

The blue-haired one cuts in again, “so Laufiel’s opposite?”.

Danny shakes his head immediately, “hardly. Mortals were meaningless to Pariah, useless. Unable to truly defend themselves without death. But he did see them as better, more civilised, than ghosts. If ghosts were ravenous beasts, humans were calm plants. Pariah instead viewed himself as being the ultimate being. An actual god. Rather than just blessed by them. Laufiel, though wrong and deluded, was a man of intellect and of some reason. Pariah was not”, gesturing to a glass pane showing Pariah crushing someone into a wall with a satisfied smirk on his face, “Pariah was as much a beast as he claimed ghosts were. A monster who tore his way through our realm like a literal plague. And Laufiel, of course, didn’t give a damn. Ghosts could act however the Zone they wanted as far as the second High Sovereign was concerned”. 

Danny chuckles at a few grumbling, “asshole”. Danny nods, “accurate. The real irony is, just as the first High Sovereign ultimately fell due to her delayed reaction to a threat, so too did the second. Pariah sought to bring every ghost under lock and key, create a world of slaves and pets. And for as much of Laufiel’s vast intellect, strength and sway, he was no match for the sheer level of power Pariah had. Even back then Pariah’s power was unheard of. Rivalled only by the Ancients themselves”, flipping to a page showing Pariah screaming and tearing Laufiel in half, “Laufiel didn’t last a minute against the future Mad King. And neither did anyone else. And thus began the Age of Darkness in genuine”. 

Closing the book and leaning forward, “the lesson here is obvious enough. Intolerance and supremacy never ends well for anyone. That there is always a bigger badder wolf and you shouldn’t ignore that”, chuckling, “and that history has a tendency to repeat itself. After all-”, smirking, “-Pariah tossed me and my threat aside when we first met”. Earning a few chuckles. 

The red-skinned one sticks her hands up, “how’d you even defeat him if he was so powerful? Would you have beaten Laufiel? Or the first High Sovereign?”. 

Danny rubs his neck, “I enhanced my strength but that is not all of it. The truth of the matter is, Pariah saw me -a half creature- and saw something that defied nature itself. He labelled me a god. A being beyond ghosts and humans. And he faced me as such. Let me come to him, talked to me as if an equal, allowed me to prepare. That was not a mercy he would have given to another”, chuckling, “though he still thought there was no chance of a loss for him”, readjusting, “as for Laufiel, besting him would have taken me far more time but it’s unlike I would have lost against him. Because the fact of the matter is, I rival and surpass many of the Ancients in power. As such, Laufiel would have found himself in the same position with me as he did with Pariah; just less ruthless. I’m not a destroyer and me usurping Pariah without destroying him is only proof of that”. Sighing, “as for the High Queen? We would never have fought. We would have been friends and allies. If I ever overthrew her, it would have been because she _gave_ the throne _to me_. Recognising me as the stronger, but still kind, ghost and thus more suited to lead”. 

Everyone blinks at him a little wide-eyed so he chuckles and rubs his neck, “in a way everything came full circle again. Our species are existing harmoniously again, even if still largely separate, and the High Sovereign is a kind one. We might have lost a lot to the past and our closer intertwinement with mortals but-”, smirking, “-I think nature made up for it by making me both, an existing in-between”. 

Danny’s floating, putting away the book, when one of the children with big yellow eyes tugs at his ecto-field slightly, not actually moving to physically touch the High King though. “What is it?”.

They blink at him, “will... will you be careful and not ignore danger? Like the other Sovereigns did?”. 

Danny smiles and bends down, patting them on the head, “I have a few things the others didn’t. I started at the bottom. Fought both with and without allies. And grew up surrounded by threats. I’m a paranoid one. Called the Suffered King for a reason. I’m more likely to see danger where there is not, than miss the danger that is there. Besides-”, dropping his hand and looking up, to the one stained glass window that stays covered with a cloth, “-I already know what that kind of danger looks like and faced it. Sometimes the only enemy is ourselves”. Looking back to them and smiling, happily getting one in return. 

“Good! Because I like you”. 

Danny laughs, “I’m glad you do”. 

**End**. 


End file.
